Scrambling for hours?

Ya know, in this economy with all the crazy crap happening, especially in the world of retail pharmacy, you really can't be choosy when it comes to getting your hours right? Not me. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have a job! I just want a break before school, which is getting shorter and shorter with all the extra shifts people have asked me to take.

Apparently my apathy towards getting hours and wanting to spend more time off before school makes me a hot commodity. I feel bad for people struggling to get their hours and make ends meet, which is another reason I cut my own hours. I figure, I should make them available for people who need it! I guess my manager does not appreciate this sentiment. I am trying to make her realize that in a few weeks, I'm not going to be around anymore to bail them out. They need to find a new person to rely on! This has only made her want to schedule me as much as possible. I mean, I can't complain, money is money and I really should get as much as I can before school.

This has a negative affect on me though. It gives me that stupid ego, oh everyone wants me, blah blah blah. Couple that with my apathy for work because my vacation is looming in a mere few days, it's disastrous. I'm sure when my pharmacists (I know a lot, it's good to network!) call from other stores looking for coverage, they would literally think wtf is wrong with you? I'm offering you precious HOURS! with the line of questions I ask before responding yes or no.

Basically, when people call me to pick up a shift (once they found out I only did 4 days a week and no longer OT, I get offers left and right. It's kind of ridiculous.) I ask these questions:

1) Which store? (You know, everyone's got a store in a district people loathe working in, I certainly do)
2)When is the shift? (I want later if I'm drinking the night before, lol)
3) Who am I working with? (Super important. A bad coworker leads to a bad day at work.)

When I ask this, people find it hilarious. Probably because they know me pretty well. Eh, I guess when you're good at what you do, people will put up with more BS. I am just grateful they all relate to my stupid humour. Hey, if I have to work more than I want to, I'm going to try and make it as painless as possible.

You never know, they may all secretly hate me. Regardless, being a competent tech is apparently a rare commodity around here, so they accept me as I am. haha.

Receptionists that you just want to strangle.

RARRRR. I hate freaking E-Rx's sometimes. From some ridiculous quantities, incomplete Rx's, or when they decide send the same script TWICE through E-scribe, once through the fax, and also to the pharmacy down the street. SERIOUSLY?

What I hate even more are refill requests for prescribers on E-scribe. You cannot "refax it" easily if they didn't get it the first time. My favorite is "We don't have e-scribe." .... but your doctor and entire office has an ID number... and you sent us one last week. "Oh.. What's e-scribe?"

Today I just wanted to rip this office a new one.

"We e-faxed a request through e-scribe 4 days ago."
"Oh that's not our patient."
... That's not what you told them 10 minutes ago.
"Oh, THAT patient (wtf??) we never got anything. Can you fax it again?"
"We did, we faxed you manually yesterday to the number you gave us, and this morning. Can you give us a verbal rx because your fax machine does not seem to be working?"
"We need you to fax us."
"Ok I will, but your fax machine does not seem to be working so how will I know if you recieve it?"
"I'll call you."

I refax it again and this goes on periodically for the next 4 hours. The patient calls us screaming at us for 'not faxing the doctor the refill request' because they still haven't recieved anything. Bitch never called back of course. So we kept calling because they kept yelling at us to call because "Obviously we are not doing our job."

By the third call and manual fax to the office I wanted to strangle this receptionist. I asked her, if we had faxed it to the office THREE times today in the last 5 hours and she hasn't recieved ONE What makes her think that it will go through NOW?

"Just fax it again." BITCH YOU DIDN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!!! was screaming in my head. Instead I just asked her to ask the doctor to call in a new RX so the patient can have their medication before they close. "No. We need you to fax us."

AWOIJEOIAWJFOWIJE Jesus fucking christ is your fax machine on???

The last time I called I got someone different. Thank fucking god, because I was ready to break something. We fax it one more time, and they turned on the fax machine finally and I get a call 45 minutes later that they got it and will call us back later.

Fuck that I'm off shift. Good luck with that shit. The patient was a lot nicer in the end. I told her the whole ordeal and that we tried to get them to give us a new rx over the phone because of their fax issue, and she offered to go down to the office herself if they wouldn't take care of it. I hope she bitch slaps that receptionist.

Hello... Goodbye.

I'm not sure if there are many people that work in a pharmacy where every one is like family. I've heard stories of ones where everyone hates each other. How much would that suck? My pharm family is usually what gets me through the day. Although they will get on your nerves just like your real family.

The day I got into pharmacy school was a really happy one. The day I met The Girlfriend was a really drunk, but happy one. The day I chose between a school much loser to home and a school over 2000 miles away, was a hard one. When I signed my life away and committed to a school farther away, it made me sad. In the end though, I made the decision to go somewhere I would be happiest, not what would make this relationship easiest.

A month or so ago we agreed to break up in August when I left. It wasn't an easy decision and over these short 3 months she changed my life. My coworkers were split between begging us to stay together and saying that we should just end it now. (Like I said, they love gettin' in your business, just like family.)

I've never really connected with anyone quite like the way I connected with her, and I guess she felt the same way. We were both reluctant on the decision, but logic always wins in our debates.

I broke up with her last night. I just couldn't drag it out any longer. As happy as I am with her, knowing tht we were going our separate ways in two months just made me so sad. I couldn't imagine how much it would hurt by the time August rolled around.

I think I may regret this later.

Compounding woes

I enjoy compounding medications, for me it's fun and it's kind of like being back in my lab. There are many things that really suck about it though. This is mostly due to the fact that you're compounding in a retail pharmacy and not a specialty one.

Patients trying to scare the crap out of you, well they do that indirectly by saying the suspension that was compounded was shorted to them. Um, if there wasn't enough solution then that could mean the active ingredient was not properly diluted with the 'delivery vehicle'. There was NO way this particular one was 'shorted'. This is usually code for "I am a fucking idiot and gave my kid too much" or "I spilled it, but will blame it on you instead."

I triple check all my suspensions' volumes before and after they are combined. Then that gets checked by the RPh on duty. Shitty part is, thanks to the world of corpo pharmacy, we just have to 'accept it' and give them more.

I also like compounding because most people leave you alone when you are wearing gloves, a face mask (for some powders this is a must), and holding some strange looking objects. Unfortunately, there are always those dipshits that shout "HEY I NEED TO PICK UP MY MEDS!" at you while you're trying to pour the suppository mixture into the mold with your back to them. Then go to the pick up window dumbass. Do you see a cash register back here?

Sometimes when I'm holding a 50ml syringe with an 18G needle mischevious thoughts run through my mind, I giggle to myself a bit then return to my work while my coworkers stare with a frightened look on their face. They know I'd never hurt them, I work with some of the best people, but I guess you never know when that last straw breaks the mules back.

And of course when they want their compounded med "right now." Sure thing, let me pull it out of my ass.

Oh snap, you just got pwned druggie.

Ya know, patients say a lot of strange/weird/stupid things to me, but I think this guy takes the cake.

Patient "I need to know if I can get this refilled now."

I get the info, turns out to be a narcotic, filled for a month supply less than 2 weeks ago.

Me "Sorry sir, this can't be filled until this date because you just got it filled less than 2 weeks ago."

Patient "No! You only gave me 60 tablets and it says here to take it twice a day so that's FOUR TABLETS A DAY. EVERY SIX HOURS." (he left out that the part where it's only as needed"

Me "Sir, twice a day is every 12 hours, 2 tablets a day."

Patient "NO ONE DAY IS 12 HOURS. SO EVERY 6 HOURS."

Me "Sir, one day is 24 hours."

Patient "SAYS WHO?"

Me "... the rest of the world? And also because 24 hours is how long it takes the earth to make a full rotation on its axis. Please just follow the directions on bottle. We cannot release this medication until this date."

Patient "WHATEVER!"

Then my pharmacist looked over at me and said "What?? Did you really just have to tell someone repeatedly that one day is 24 hours?"

Dear You

--Don't judge me, I've gotten 3 hours of sleep the past three days, went to work, then tutored for a 2 hours. I have no idea how I am conscious, or even conscious enough to write this. But it did make me feel better about 'what was'. --

Dear You,

I spent so many years in love with you! You were my best friend. You made sure I stayed on track. You read books and watched tv while making sure I got my thesis done or studied for my exams. Just being in the same room with you made me feel better, even if we didn't say a word.

I started falling for you the day I met you. You weren't expecting someone in the dorms until the actual move in date. Apparently, they forgot to inform you that the University's marching band members move in a week before everyone else. That first week we had together was so much fun. I had no idea we would not only stay friends after that first year, but you would become my best friend.

I know we went through a lot of rough times through the years, and I'm so sorry for any hurt that I caused you. I am so thankful you were there for me when I needed you the most. I struggled so long with the feelings I had for you. I was so confused. When I realized, 'Oh my god, I'm gay.' I realized why these feelings for you would not go away. When I came out to you, I couldn't stop crying. Not because it was hard accepting who I was, it was hard telling you because you meant so much to me.

You have no idea how much it meant to me, that even after my breakdown, we went about our day and nothing between us had changed. I never told you I loved you. During my last two years at school, we were inseparable. Well, when I wasn't in my lab at least. You helped me keep my sanity and kept me from drowning under all of my work. You kept me anchored and kept me from sinking into the pile of biochemistry courses and thesis writings. You kept me sane.

Ironically, loving you drove me insane sometimes. When it came time for me to move, I felt so lost. The first month away from you was so hard. Going from never going two days without seeing each other to never seeing each other at all was so hard. I buried myself in my new job, my family, anything that distracted me from missing you. Three years later, it feels good to know that you our friendship is still strong. We may not see each other more than once every few years, but we always picked up like I had never left at all.

Sometimes I still miss you, and feel like I'm still in love with you. Maybe a small part of me will always be in love with you. All the same, I just wanted to say: I miss you, I love you, you are one amazing best friend. I couldn't have asked for more.

Love,

Me

Roadblock.

Wednesday nights have become one of my favorite nights. It's usually the night girlfriend doesn't have to work at the hospital, I get off shift early, and it's our GLEE night. The best part is not having to work the next day. It's pretty much the only part of our schedules that don't clash.

I really love spending time with her. I haven't really felt this way about anyone in a long time. It's just the impending move to the midwest that's got me nervous. We've only been together 2 and a half months, but we've gotten pretty attached to each other. In three months I'm moving 2/3 of the way across the country. I know it's time we stop glossing over this fact, pretending it's not coming as soon a it really is. Her surgical residency is here. My school is there.

My timing really sucks. As much as trying to do a long distance thing would suck, but let us stay together, it just doesn't seem feasible. I don't plan on flying back very often because I'll be trying to find clinical internships that will most likely be out there as well, she can't visit, because she barely has enough time to sleep and see me right now as it is.

It's like we've hit this huge roadblock and neither of us is really sure what to do.